Dems facing Tierney hoping for rare primary upset

The last time a Massachusetts congressional challenger from the same party unseated an incumbent, Seth Moulton was hitting the books in middle school.

The year was 1992, and Marty Meehan, several years away from becoming the chancellor of UMass Lowell, took 65 percent of the vote over Chester Atkins when the two faced off in the Democratic primary.

"He beat a troubled incumbent and went on to become a great congressman," Moulton, 35, said last week of Meehan. "I'm trying to repeat that. That's been an inspiration for me."

Like the virtually unknown Republican challenger taking out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in last week's primary, Salem's Moulton is trying to beat longtime Democratic Rep. John Tierney in the primary for 6th Congressional District, which is made up of 39 towns, including Bedford, Billerica, Burlington, Tewksbury and Wilmington.

Immigration lawyer Marisa DeFranco, who unsuccessfully tried to get on the Democratic ballot in the state's 2012 Senate race, is also running against Tierney in the Democratic primary.

Cantor, losing as an incumbent in Virginia, faced a much different race with the tea party involved, but it showed that people are "fed up with Washington," according to Moulton.

However, it appears that Moulton doesn't have the support of local Democrats in town leadership positions, who said last week that Tierney is "our guy.

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Billerica Democratic Town Committee Chairman George Noel said Tierney has always been responsive to all constituents and deserves to be re-elected to his 10th term in Congress.

"He's the kind of leader we need to have in Congress," Noel said. "We need good, progressive voices like his representing the middle class. He has the seniority, so if and when Congress turns over, I want him back as a chairman. If we elected someone new, then they start at the bottom."

Gary DePalma, chairman of Wilmington's Democratic Town Committee, also said the district needs a "seasoned veteran that knows the pulse of Washington."

Because of Tierney's 18 years on Capitol Hill, DePalma said the congressman knows how to work through the gridlock.

"Competition is healthy, but at the end of the day, residents will find that Congressman Tierney will be a better voice for us," DePalma said. "He's conscious of what's happening in the district, he's pushed through some good bills, and he has visibility here.

"He keeps the pulse of the district in his grasp," he added.

Marie Sweeney, chairwoman of the Greater Lowell Area Democrats, also said there's "no question" she's backing Tierney, who has gone out of his way to learn about the needs of the area, Sweeney said.

As an example, she mentioned when Tierney came to Billerica to show support when the town had to cut the Head Start program because of sequestration.

But, according to Moulton, the only way to effect change is when an "outsider not controlled by the political machine" takes over the seat.

"We have the least effective Congress in our nation's history, and we're not going to fix that by sending the same people back," said Moulton, a Marine turned health-care entrepreneur. "We need new leadership, and it has to start right here at home."

Like Moulton, DeFranco said Cantor losing because he was "out of touch" is a good lesson for everybody.

"We shouldn't have to rely on incumbency," Middleton's DeFranco said. "Whether they're good or not, they should always be challenged. Incumbency year after year results in a do-nothing Congress, and we need to change that."

Tierney, speaking from Washington, D.C., last week, said the Cantor loss in Virginia is not analogous to his race.

"Virginia is a long way from Massachusetts," said Tierney, who barely held on to his seat in 2012 after a strong run by Republican Richard Tisei, who is again seeking the Republican nomination this year.

"We're substantially ahead in the polls because we spend so much time in the district," he added. "I never hear that we're not around enough. We make sure we're out in the community and ask people about the services they need."

Moulton's campaign has raised more money than Tierney's in every quarter, raising $456,000 in the first quarter of 2014, compared to Tierney's campaign bringing in $348,000.

Moulton ended March with $651,122 in his campaign account. Tierney still ended up with more cash in his account as of the end of March with $976,718.

DeFranco, who is not taking money from political-action committees, lags. She did say she had her best quarter in the first quarter, bringing in $22,000.

Peter Ubertaccio, a political-science professor at Stonehill College, said money totals are always important in establishing credibility as a challenger, helping challengers compete with advertising and field organization. He predicted that Moulton will be able to compete over the summer because of fundraising, but Moulton still faces all types of challenges, Ubertaccio added.

"John Tierney is very clearly the front-runner," Ubertaccio said. "The only hope for the Moulton campaign is to use that financial edge to raise his profile over the summer months going into the primary."

If Moulton puts together a good field organization and gets within single digits, then he has a "real shot" of upsetting Tierney, according to Democratic strategist Mary Ann Marsh.

But Michael Goldman, a friend of and former adviser to Tierney, said none of the same dynamics as the Cantor loss exist in this race.

"People thought that Cantor had become too Washington, meeting with lobbyists instead of campaigning," said Goldman, who writes a weekly column for The Sun. "He didn't take the race seriously and fell asleep. You also need a major fundamental difference between candidates for an upset like that, but there's nothing like that here."

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